In 2010, food, travel and lifestyle journalist Charyn Pfeuffer swapped her BlackBerry for a backpack. She volunteered more than 1,000 hours with 12 community projects in 12 countries over 12 months. Now, this Seattleite wants to continue to give back, inspire others to do good and bring awareness to those making a difference. Follow her travels and adventures here and on Twitter at @charynpfeuffer.

26 June 2010

project | building a future and hogares crea in honduras

I'm back in action after three weeks in Honduras for the first project of The Global Citizen Project. My apologies for delayed posts – technical logistics in Tegucigalpa were unpredictable and it’s taken me a full week to step away from the volunteer project and process the experience. On many levels, it was a very difficult trip for me. My time was divided between working with first and second graders in Colonia Ramón Amaya Amador, an underserved barrio on the outskirts of the capitol city, through Building a Future, and with abandoned and street children, many victims of violence, addiction and abuse via various Hogares Crea homes.

I had seen painful glimpses of the face of poverty, homelessness and hunger in Latin America on previous trips, but never experienced its myriad of effects so intimately. Despite this often seen reality, I also traveled throughout Honduras in late 2007 and had been floored by the beauty of the country. On this trip though, beauty was limited to a few quick countryside road trips and the gracious hospitality of the Honduran people; if it existed in Tegucigalpa, it was lost on me. The city (and country) face a plethora of problems ranging from its 40% unemployment rate, $1.30-1.50 average hourly wage and pervasive lack of education (the average Honduran completes 6.5 years of school) to widely divided social classes and a population where more than 50% of its people are ages 18-years-old and younger. Factor in Honduras’ recent Presidential coup and its current political polarization, and well, you don’t exactly have a recipe for (easy) success.

I’m eager to share specific experiences and stories with everyone and plan to do so over the coming weeks before I take off for project two of The Global Citizen Project with Karikuy in Lima, Peru in mid-July. In the meantime, here are my photos on Flickr of the people and places in Honduras that have given me pause and huge gratitude for the opportunity, education and friends and family in my life.

2 comments:

great photos, and congratulations on the work done in honduras. i lived there for a year in 2005-2006 and feel the same way about it as you do. the people and places are beautiful. thanks for bringing back some memories! we are heading there again in about a month and im really looking forward to it. jamie from www.cloudpeopleadventures.com

Hi Jamie, Nice to meet you. Thank you for your kind words. Where did you live in Honduras? And where are you off to next? It is such an incredible place. I've been all over Latin America and Honduran hospitality is unlike no other. I only hope that my time there made some small positive dent in the lives of the people I interacted with. I wish you safe travels. Gonna check out your website right now!

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From food, wine and travel editor to copywriter, marketing consultant to daily blogger, my 14-year long career in publishing and media has involved me in all aspects of creating the perfect editorial. In addition to authoring, co-authoring and ghostwriting more than a dozen books, I have written for the following publications, media outlets and people:

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